Over-consumption

While our thirst for water steadily rises, the water supply does not. During the 20th century, the world’s population tripled, but its consumption of water increased sevenfold.

Where we use water:
1. Agriculture (70% of world water use)
2. Industry (20%)
3. Domestic use (10%)

The planet is buckling under the stress of supplying us with water for the seemingly infinite number of ways we have found to use it. Today, almost 1.4 billion people live in river basin areas where consumption of water exceeds the region’s ability to replenish itself.

Over-consumption leads to a variety of consequences:

• Rivers run dry before they reach the sea
• Underground tables dry up
• The cost of finding water escalates

We live in an era of conflicting priorities when it comes to the use of water. Too often, the planet’s diverse ecosystems—and all the creatures in them, including humans—are not prioritized, protected or preserved. Instead of allocating, distributing and preserving water so everyone is provided for, we drop golf courses in the middle of the desert and we use 2,400 litres of water to make a single hamburger